Feeding Easy Keepers

Easy keepers are horses and ponies that maintain or gain weight on a minimum amount of food. While easy keepers are widely considered a joy to own in terms of feed costs, the downside is their potential for obesity, laminitis, and metabolic issues.

Overfeeding a horse is hard on his musculoskeletal system, is contraindicated if he has osteoarthritis, decreases his athletic stamina, interferes with heat dissipation, and can contribute to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and laminitis. Owners of easy keepers should routinely perform body condition scoring and modify feeding regimens to ensure these horses maintain a healthy body weight. One of the contributing factors to obesity in horses is that owners often fail to recognize what constitutes a healthy body condition score.

Featured Adoptable Horse

Precious

Really nice American mustang with barb configuration. Saddle broken but a experienced rider is best. This is a package she goes along with her corral mate,roam mare @14 hands, saddle broke needs an experienced rider. She may be a couple of years ... Read More